It is common to use a cove base at the bottom of a wall so as to eliminate the usual interior angle between a wall and a floor. In installation of a cove base, it is necessary to end abutt cove base ends and to route a cove base around corners, both interior and exterior. It is desireable to minimize the noticeability of the cove base joint in doing so, and so the adjoining cove bases are cut with matching angles, each typically cut at an angle equal to half of the angle of junction.
When a cove base is made of a stiff material, such as wood, metal, or hard plastic, it is satisfactory to use a miter box as a guide in cutting the junction angles. However, when the material is soft such as rubber or synthetic rubber, the cove base does not maintain its shape when being cut. The result is a cut that is not consistent or straight, and does not match with a cut on an adjoining cove base. Thus, the cove base joint is easily noticeable and less attractive. Because such joints are not attractive, soft material cove bases are often bent into and around corners, resulting in cove bases not matching the sharp contour of the corner and also appearing less than aethestically pleasing.
What is needed is a cutting guide shaped to match the shape of a cove base so the cove base is held firmly while it is being cut. The guide should also be stable against distortion during the cutting. It is common in the prior art to have various forms of cutting guides, but none of them are shaped to hold a cove base firmly in place. Previous guides typically also have matching opposing slits with a receiving area between them into which a material to be cut is placed. Each set of opposing slits are generally provided in a wall and extend to the wall top so that a knife or saw passes through the top of the guide and down the slit. This design defines upwarding extending fingers separated and secured only at the guide bottom, potentially resulting in an unstable slit guide, especially for soft materials. The problem remains to have a stable cutting guide for soft materials that produces matching angle cuts so that joints of cut materials are scarcely noticeable.